Mark Reviews Movies: THE LAST BUS

The Last Bus, Samuel Goldwyn Films

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Review by Mark Dujsik | February 17, 2022

Tom (Timothy Spall) just wants to go home. That's the premise of The Last Bus, which keeps the traveler's motives a mystery, as an attempt to compensate for how little story there is. Joe Ainsworth's screenplay also gives the protagonist a string of contrived opportunities to prove how good-hearted he is, because there isn't much to the character, either.

That's not to undermine Spall's work here, which is quiet, considered, and certainly hints at more depth than Ainsworth or director Gillies MacKinnon are able to provide their central character. The movie begins with at least one simple but striking moment of editing, as a young Tom (played by Ben Ewing) and his wife Mary (Natalie Mitson) leave their home in Land's End, at the southern-most point of England, for a new life at the northern tip of Scotland.

They arrive, and as a young Tom and his wife respectively make tea and work in the garden, the two are suddenly decades older, doing the same things (Phyllis Logan plays the elder Mary). Without a word spoken or a montage of years passing, we can see and feel the strength of this bond.

Then, just as suddenly, Tom is alone in the house. He plots a course—using only bus routes, carrying only a suitcase, and following the same path he and Mary took all those years ago—to return to England. The main reason—that Mary is no longer with him—is obvious, and flashbacks explaining how Mary left aren't particularly useful or surprising. Another vital detail is revealed so late, while toying with the timeline of the persistent memories, that it feels calculated.

Most of the story involves Tom's encounters with strangers, from those in need of help or sympathy to those who just find his demeanor to be charming. On assorted buses and stops, he defends a Muslim woman from a prejudiced bully, gives money to a drug addict who stole his suitcase, fixes a bus after it has broken down, and comforts a woman who has just been dumped by her girlfriend. There's also a brief stop to stay with a kind and ideal family, as well as a moment in which he silences two bickering groups with a rendition of "Amazing Grace." The man is saintly, basically, and in the background, his adventures become a viral sensation online.

Again, there's very little to this material, despite Spall's best efforts. The constant deflections of the truth of Tom's story, moments of forced optimism and compassion, and feel-good tone of The Last Bus come across as intrinsically manipulative or downright dishonest.

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